AN UNBIDDEN LIFE

by Rev. Dr. Daniel C. Wilburn​I respond to Mint.com’s recent visual comparison between the US and China.

I read the Economist, so I tend to see/read this economic/political/spiritual stuff – at least from their paper’s view. And I read a few other items about China here and there, because I have my antenna up for anything on China. The Newsweek special reports never satisfy me. Just too entertainment driven. So the Mint.com stats revealed more.What gets interesting to me with the Mint.com and China “vs.” USA (vs?? really? they are our enemy?) scenario is this: you have a cash-rich China, and no customers now (our money dried up). If they can sell to themselves, good. But they’ll have to spread that cash (our cash btw) around. Which they are attempting lavishly.But will it be enough? Furthermore, China seems a little “angry” with the west b/c we aren’t buying as much (amids other things like our incessant nosiness into their internal affairs.) Go figure – like our buying Chinese goods could just go on forever! I contend our “cash” wasn’t cash at all, but consumer debt. Not savings, not hard assets or materials – just trillions in trashy expensive short term debt. The trade imbalance was/is staggering between China and the US.Also, part of China’s anger comes from their inherent swagger. Chinese superiority has always been there. I see and feel it each time I go. But now they are shrewdly calculating how and when to show their might. China’s muscle is in their highly controlled cheap labor force (and army!!). However, if the rising 600,000 middle classer’s who have now a taste of affluence, don’t get their way – they all want a car – then China will have to deal with dissatisfaction at home. Moreover, I think they will redirect the fault/blame onto the West. They sure ain’t gonna blame Africa or the Middle East – they don’t need to. Oh yes, and don’t forget about peasant uprisings in China – their history is nothing but that. This is why they are totalitarian – they have no choice; 800 million are too poor.Spiritually, Christians will need to figure out how to “join” the powers – not subvert them or even sneak around them. Christians will have to figure out how to be “nation-builders” and not be seen as some cult. This will be a very interesting dynamic to watch. Theologian Simon Chan tells us in the West that we just don’t get it: we don’t understand what it is like to be a minority religion with a minority voice in a very unWestern, unChristian East.But of course the great danger is that if Christians join the nation-building, they may become tools of the powerful, and fail to actually a) bring about the good news – justice, love, service, redemption, forgiveness; b) even worse, sanctify Chinese imperialism. The house church senses this collusion all too well. And here we all know too well how that turns out – look a us! look at the religious right! Look at the last 500 years of church/state collusion and its ambiguous results. As theologian Miguel de la Torre (at Iliff Institute in Colorado) says, ‘justice must always come from below – never does it come from above.’ Rev Dr MLK Jr was from below. Bishop Tutu was from below. Now William Wilberforce was from above – but he’s the exception. I guess I might change my tune and argue for the house church to stay hidden if they want to change China’s soul into a Jesus soul. Hmm. Sure sounds like a lot of persecution coming their way. It’s weird and smug to say but, perhaps NOT being a superpower isn’t so bad.Power. Always power. Even the best people do the worst in the name of good – because of power.

by Rev. Dr. Daniel C. Wilburn“Whoever would save his life will lost it and whoever loses his life will find it” – Jesus, Matthew 16:25The Apostle Paul repeats an anthem of the early church…Though his state was that of God, yet he did not claim equality with God something he should cling to. Rather, he emptied himself, and assuming the state of a slave, he was born in human likeness. (Philippians 2:5ff)I am reading Cynthia Bourgeault’s book, Centering Prayer and Inner Awakening. She states that all great religions/faiths have as their goal “death to self.” True I suppose. But let us not confuse “interior death” with a more holistic view. I deeply embrace meditation and contemplation. I lead retreats, guide people into silence, listening prayer, and centering prayer. All of this rich spirituality is meant to “plug in” our heart and world to god. It is not meant to simply a self—ish (self focused, self centered) spirituality, where god is just there to help us idolize our Self. No. Taking Jesus’ prime example of death to self, it is truly “Not my will, O Lord, but thine!” – and then he goes to the cross – not a symbolic cross, a real cross. The soldiers gamble away what little possessions he has. He falls into the hands of god The Father Almighty. Ladies and Gentlemen: that is death to self. This death, this high price, this cost is full death. Death to self involves our parenting, our money, our language, our interior emptying, our “every thought captive to god,” our driving, our church, our worship, our generosity, our silence, our retreats, our busyness, our competition.Let us never cheapen how expansive (wide) this death should be. Nor should we ever cheapen or limit just how deep (interior) this death must be.Flee! Flee! Flee! Flee your life! Flee your busyness, your anger. Go into quiet and silence and aloneness. Yes, find your sacred word and intentionally revoke every thought. But also revoke every dollar and every minute. Then take up your cross and make your way down your path, your “via dolorosa,” your way to glory through tears.

by Rev. Dr. Daniel C. Wilburn​Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here; he has risen!Why do we continue to look for Jesus amongst the graves of our dead ideas? … the dead idea of war, where military violence is suppose to bring peace; the dead idea where Christian moralism replaces sitting at the feet of Jesus; where terrorists replace prophets; where busyness replaces significance; where consumption replaces contentment?Jesus shows us what it takes to have peace: go and be with your enemy; how to pray – come together for daily worship and scripture contemplation; be the bold voice of truth! rest, re-create and wrestle in solitude with the Author of Life; and store up treasures in heaven.When British missionary Bishop Lesslie Newbigin was once asked when reflecting on the future, ‘are you an optimist or a pessimist?’ he answered: “Neither. Christ has risen from the dead!”If Jesus is risen then all things are possible. If he has not risen then all we have is religion.

On a crisp Spring day like this fine morning I’d love to be walking across the Abbey’s hill toward prayer (Lauds) as the bells toll. After prayers, go eat some simple breakfast with that particular taste of institutional coffee.Then later find a warm baking place in the sun, and like some content dog just BE, no worries. And then listen for the Voice. Windmills, flowering trees, orchard, the smell of dirt, the smells of the Abbey – frankincense and polish… my journal, a book maybe, a gritty Bible story about some despot ruler who failed to honor god – and as a result the price everyone must pay… imagine myself the prophet who ‘told them so’… then wander out in a quiet field… find a tiny obscure rivulet to watch the water drip and gurgle, singing its happy tune of praise. Feel small. Hear the Voice.And we are redeemed, like turning in a lost muddy Coke bottle, you found in a ditch as a kid. You walk into the grocery store, and… Three cents! Yes, that’s about right, three cents. How I wish that is all I desired: to find hidden three-cent treasures. Buy my candy and walk home content.Go to Conception Abbey. Find your Coke bottle; be redeemed. Have no where to be.Shalom

by Rev. Dr. Daniel C. WilburnSet the captives free, defend the poor, share bread and one cup with everyone”We want to bite off more than we can chew in the inner city.We want to purchase an apartment complex and rehab it, have spiritual retreats there, and work in the neighborhood. This will be more than we can handle – and that is exactly the idea.Those of us in the outer city (suburbia) never drift into rebuilding the inner city in the name of Jesus unless we own the problems, unless we get in over our heads. This is a theological point, and a good point to make near Easter: In Jesus, god comes to be with us, he lowers himself, empties himself (Philippians 2:5-11) and enters into “solidarity” with us – he becomes one of us. BUT – though we kill him on the cross, unlike us, he rises and is victorious over death and humanity’s evil; Jesus begins a new era, a new way of being human. He is the first fruits, the first of the harvest of new Adams, new Eves.We now have power, god’s Presence in the his Spirit. Let’s be clear: we are not building the kingdom of heaven on earth by our own will and strength – the Spirit intercedes, guides, and empowers us. The resurrection shows us we need not worry or fear “those who can kill the body” (mug you in the inner city). The resurrection is not just a theological supernatural sideshow to prove how powerful god really is; no, the resurrection in the vindication of all that Jesus taught and demonstrated: death is the big enemy, but thanks be to god who gives us the victory in Jesus: Love wins! Now we chase evil away; we bring down the powers and rulers of the this world. Fear not!Purchasing an apartment complex is not unreachable. The one linked here could sell for as little as $30,000. We have more than that amount committed to the inner city through EPIC, our three year financial challenge. We just don’t have the cash in hand at the moment. But we will, I am sure. Then after we buy the work really begins: interior demolition, remodeling, getting and keeping good tenants, repairs, etc. It’s a long-term venture — one step forward, two steps backwards… more than we can chew. Just like Jesus.This is our cross to bear. This is our “emptying.” And this is our small corner of the world to resurrect and make into the kingdom of heaven.Do not think Jesus spoke empty words: “I am making all things new” (Revelations 21:5), or that he meant to make things new in the far future – or burn up the earth and start over, or that his words are a failed promise. The new day had begun. We live in that new day. I for one will not succumb to the numbing of religion, the cheapness of “Jesus is just saying metaphorical rhetoric.” The early church didn’t seem to think Jesus was just blowing smoke. They saw the new kingdom and did not lie to themselves. Martyrdom clarifies.Let us take up our cross and change our world. Amen?